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In an effort to address an estimated $500-million budget deficit, the state of Connecticut lays off 6 percent of its workforce. Gov. John Rowland warns more state workers could lose their jobs if unions fail to agree to concessions in the coming months. Caitlyn Kim reports.

Embattled Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) appears on Black Entertainment Television to apologize again for his remarks alluding to the glory of America's segregated past. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans will meet Jan. 6 to decide Lott's fate as majority leader. NPR's Juan Williams reports.

NPR's Peter Overby reports on today's budget surplus forecast by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO is projecting a surplus of more than three-trillion dollars over the next decade -- or 5.6-trillion if you count the Social Security surplus. Republicans say that means there's plenty of room for a big tax cut. Democrats argue that the projections of a huge surplus may be overly optimistic in the long term. They are supporting smaller tax cuts.

Melissa Block talks with John Reeves, self-described freeform industrial ice artist. Reeves is the artistic genius behind a 160-foot tall ice sculpture outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. Using strategically placed sprinklers, Reeves estimates that he flows about 6,000 gallons of water onto the sculpture every hour.

Germany unveils a memorial in central Berlin to the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Politicians, Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors were on hand for the solemn ceremony to inaugurate the monument designed by American architect Peter Eisenman. The opening ends 17 years of debate over how Germany should mark the darkest chapter of its past.

More than 6,000 police departments around the country now use tasers, the electronic stun guns that have been hailed as an alternative to lethal force. But Taser International, which makes the weapons, is facing questions about the safety of its products, and the accuracy of its sales reports. NPR's Laura Sullivan reports.

Wynton Marsalis has been playing the trumpet since he was 6, and won his first Grammy at 20 and has 9 total. He's also the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize. His latest album is The Magic Hour. (This Interview first aired Dec. 7, 1994.)

President Bush is in Dallas to address the Knights of Columbus in Dallas, a conservative Catholic group with 1.6 million members. The visit is part of an aggressive Bush campaign effort to win Catholic voters, who make up one-quarter of the electorate. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter.

Sales of the George Orwell classic have risen nearly 6,000 percent since news of the NSA's secret surveillance program broke. The book was first published 64 years ago last week.

We kick off our series on country music in time for the Labor Day holiday with Martie Maguire, Emily Robison and Natalie Maines. They are considered the biggest-selling female band in history, but found themselves boycotted in 2003 when Maines made an off-the-cuff remark about President Bush on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In June, they released their first CD in three years, Taking the Long Way. (Original air date: June 6, 2006)